December, January and February tend to be interesting months for those recruiting-obsessed folks among the Huskymaniacs.

Names start circulating, rumors start flying about which player the UConn staff is looking at and the more vocal fans aren't afraid to give advice to UConn coach Geno Auriemma, associate head coach Chris Dailey or anybody else will listen.

I have written this before but it bears repeating, with six national titles, three undefeated seasons, so many individual honors have been bestowed and still being bestowed on UConn players, I think Auriemma, Dailey and the UConn braintrust have a pretty good idea what they are doing when it comes to recruiting. I use the five ex-Huskies playing in the WNBA All-Star game and the larger number of former or current UConn stars in contention to make the 2012 Olympic team as exhibits A and B in the talent judging skills of the UConn staff.

They are rather particular. If they don't like a player regardless of how talented they are, they will pass. This is the time of year when the process begins to kick into gear. It's not really about identifying talent as much as it is identifying the right fit for the program. UConn does not believe in first come, first serve recruiting nor do the Huskies recruit in bulk. What that means is that they identify the players they want and pursue them, stressing quality over quantity. Sometimes that philosophy backfires as some questionable decisions were made between the time Diana Taurasi signed her letter of intent and Renee Montgomery put her name on the dotted line. But more often than not, it works pretty well. How well? By my math, UConn is 540-44 since the beginning of the 1993-94 season that's a 92.5 winning percentage which isn't impressive, it's downright staggering.

For every kid like Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, the sweet-shooting wing from Mater Dei High in Santa Ana, Calif., who decides early that UConn is the perfect place for her, there are others like Delaware scoring sensation Bentijah Laney who prefer to take their time, go through the process and make sure before they make the right decision. It may surprise you to know that the UConn coaches prefer the latter over the former. There's nothing worse than a highly-touted recruit committing to UConn before circumstances or just a change of heart leads to them playing elsewhere.

This much I know about what UConn wants in the upcoming class, high-quality players, high-quality kids and players with a high basketball IQ. Those are the same attributes Auriemma and Dailey went after when they first started working together in 1985 and not much has changed in that regard. Sure, they have a larger pool of candidates to draw on now as evidenced by the fact that the incoming freshman class will include players from California, Illinois and Ohio as well as two players from New York.

Many of the names being mentioned (Elizabeth Williams, Ariel Massengale, Bonnie Samuelson, Laney, Bria Smith) are very much on UConn's recruiting radar. But bear in mind that at this time last year, Sheronne Vails and Orsi Szecsi were being mentioned as kids UConn was pursuing. Vails will come to Connecticut only as a member of the visiting Louisville team. No matter how many times I wrote that Laurin Mincy and Meighann Simmons were not being recruited by the Huskies, those stubborn recruit-niks refused to believe me. I don't just make this stuff up, I don't just repeat second-hand information without confirming it.

I imagine more names will emerge, especially some other potential post players, between now and November, 2010. Ironically, if few names are mentioned, that could be a good sign that UConn is comfortable with their chances of getting the players they are pursuing. When people asked me about Bria Hartley and her chances of coming to UConn, I said that the fact that UConn was not pursuing other top-level point guards was a pretty good indication that UConn felt pretty good about their chances of landing the highly sought after Hartley. Sure enough, Hartley is headed to UConn.

The last thing to remember is that until a player comes to visit UConn, try not to get too wrapped up on any impending commitments. Do not underestimate the importance the UConn staff places in what the current Huskies think of the recruits. I won't name any names but there have been some pretty gifted kids who came in for a visit and before they arrived home, were no longer being recruited by the Huskies. It doesn't take a Yale graduate degree to figure out why that was the case. I can say with certainty that Mosqueda-Lewis, Laney and Samuelson earned the stamp of approval during their visits. They are three super kids who would fit in perfectly at UConn.

My guess is that no commitments will be coming in the near future but I am envisioning another impressive class to go along with the one the Huskies just signed. I would expect a minimum of four players and perhaps a total of five.